Letter: Objectivity means facing the truth

Thursday

Aug 7, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Objectivity means

Objectivity means

facing the truth

George Orwell wrote, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." It can be a very unpopular one, as well. The lies and half-truths we hear over and over in the course of a lifetime can blind us to the ugly reality under our noses. They can even leave us unable to recognize hypocrisy and double standards being passed off as truth.

I think future historians should even call these times The Age of Universal Deceit. It perfectly sums up a time where people have had their sense of objectivity obliterated by the cyclone of "infotainment" that has replaced responsible journalism in America.

The current actions of Israel in Gaza are a great example of double standards. A very selective reading of history and a total lack of objectivity are central to any attempts toward the justification of the horror that is being perpetrated there. Any and all deviation from this lopsided narrative is immediately branded as hate speech or anti-Semitism in order to stop the conversation before it starts.

There is a way to see the truth, though. You don't even need to know the history of how Israel came to be or how the Palestinians ended up in Gaza, the West Bank and scattered in other countries as refugees.

All you have to do is consider whether something can be both wrong and right at the same time.

There was a time in this country, not that long ago and before the 24/7 news networks, when people based their opinions on information tempered by an understanding of what's right and what's wrong. Hopefully we still have enough common humanity left to understand that unleashing a modern military against captive, impoverished civilians with next to no ability to defend themselves is not a war, it is a war crime; collectively punishing millions of people to get back at the few thousand who resist what they see as oppression is also a war crime.

Most of all, we should all be in agreement that any military action that results in the death of hundreds of children, who lack even the option of running away from the carnage, is a crime that can never be justified.